Okay, so this is entirely new to me. Sparrow is was an email client for Mac OS X and iOS (and Windows), which brought a decent Gmail experience to these platforms - as opposed to Apple's own not-so-good Gmail support and Google's Gmail iOS application which, well, is just a webpage. Google has now acquired Sparrow, and basically all hell has broken loose, to the point of Rian van der Merwe writing that 'we' lost "faith in a philosophy that we thought was a sustainable way to ensure a healthy future for independent software development, where most innovation happens".

> that Apple users consider open source - is like asking a group of religious fanatics to convert to atheism.

Not exactly. I'd rather compare it to trying to convert hardcore money worshipers to altruists.

No, it's probably quite apt comparison, actually... have you already forgot http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13416272 ? ("A team of neuroscientists scanned the brain of an Apple fan and it showed that the brand was stimulating the same parts of the brain as religious imagery does in people of faith"